US Military Plane Crashes in Afghanistan’s Ghazni: Reports

Initially Afghan government officials suggested that a Boeing plane belonging to the Ariana Afghan Airlines had crashed and exploded into flames.

But shortly after news broke of the crash, Ariana Airlines Acting CEO Mirzakwal denied that one of the company's jetliners had went down.

"There has been an airline crash but it does not belong to Ariana because the two flights managed by Ariana today from Herat to Kabul and Herat to Delhi are safe," Mirzakwal was quoted by Reuters.

The aircraft is said to have crashed in territory under the Taliban control and the militants were reportedly seen helping to put out the fire at the crash site.

Afghan special forces were headed to the site to investigate the incident.

US Army Maj. Beth Riordan, a spokeswoman for US Central Command, said that it remained unclear whose aircraft was involved in the crash. Riordan declined to immediately comment further. However, pictures on social media purportedly from the crash site showed what could be the remains of a Bombardier E-11A aircraft, which the U.S. military uses for electronic surveillance over Afghanistan.